This is a slight tweak on the famous Hobgoblin recipe, I cranked up the hop bitterness (hence the name), added toasted Maris Otter and Toasted hulled pumpkin seeds. the result is a bigger toasty biscuity flavor with some nice nuttiness from both the seeds and the home toasted malt to balance out the oak and whiskey notes.

I wasn't sure just where to put this, it is on the cusp of being a brown ale and an ESB, the IBU put it in the ESB range, but I feel that the color and nuttiness put it more as a brown ale, however the FWH mellow out the perceived bitterness so it could easily pass as a brown.

Overall the process is pretty straight forward, toast up a pound of MO a week before brewing and let it rest. The day of the brew heat a cast iron skillet on the stove and add the raw unsalted hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas) heat them until they get a nice toasted color and they puff up almost round DO NOT BURN THEM!! I then let them cool a bit and add to the grains and run them through the mill.

I find the combination of the toasted grain and the pumpkin seeds really add a nice nutty biscuity flavor to the finished beer that really plays well with the oak and whiskey notes from the barrel aging.

Fermentation begins at 64°, I let it ramp up to 67° and finally to 70° in the final few days to bring out some of the yeast driven esters.

After fermentation has completed carefully rack into a sanitized 20L whiskey barrel or secondary fermenter with whiskey soaked medium toasted oak chips and age out for a week or two, or until the whiskey/oak flavor is where you want it.

Bottle or keg and carbonate to 2.0 volumes. put them away to condition for a month or longer to let the flavors mellow.